Browse by Artist: FUSHITSUSHA

Artist:	FUSHITSUSHA
Title:
Label:	PSF (JAPAN)
Format:	2CD
Price:	$36.00
Catalog #:	PSF 003/4CD

Long demanded reissue of the self-titled debut Fushitsusha double live album from the early '90s. An entirely different record to the wildly popular Double Live 2CD (PSF 15/16) which came out a couple years after this one. "This is where it all began. One of the first releases on the then fledgling PSF label was a DLP by Fushitsusha, Keiji Haino's ultimate rock unit. Haino was already an underground legend in Japan and had been for the previous twenty years, but was still virtually unknown anywhere else and this was only his second LP release. The all-black gatefold with the silver spray painted cross on the inside was one of the mysterious items to have appeared out of a scene already cloaked in mystery. The sounds it contained seemed to suggest nothing so much as the primeval mythic soul-soup from which all music originated. Word began to spread outside of Japan, and the 1000 copies pressed soon began changing hands for ludicrous sums. To the few that got to hear it, it was a record of breathtaking originality that hinted greatly at what was to follow. Haino is now one of the undoubted gods of the underground, inspiring devotion and awe whenever he plays. There have been a flood of releases, spreading the name worldwide. But throughout it all Haino has steadfastly refused all offers to reissue the Fushitsusha DLP. At one stage there was talk of the current line-up of the band re-recording all the tracks. Finally this autumn, Haino relented and these sounds will at last reach the wider listener audience they so deserve. One of the essential records of the last ten years. It is truly a joy to have it finally available on CD." --Alan Cummings.

Artist:	FUSHITSUSHA
Title:	Pathetique
Label:	PSF (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PSF 050CD

The fourth overall release by Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha group (following the Double Live LP (PSF 3/4), Double Live CD (PSF 15/16) and Allegorical Misunderstanding (Avant 008). This has 4 long tracks, 74 minutes of music; stylistically it's in the heavy over the top guitar trio mode a la PSF 15/16 and absolutely the dream Fushitsusha release that everybody was waiting for. Packed again in a gorgeous black fold out, with a first: English lyric translations.

Artist:	FUSHITSUSHA
Title:	Origin's Hesitation
Label:	PSF (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PSF 8010CD

"Expectations exploded, intentions fleetingly revealed, faith justified. A new album from Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha is always going to be a major event. And to make the release of Origin's Hesitation even more significant, it is the first new album from the group in almost two years, the first studio recordings by the new duo line-up, and the first Fushitsusha album on PSF since 1994's stunning Pathetique. The popular perception of Fushitsusha has usually been as a rock band, albeit one that pushed the definition of that term further than anyone had ever done before. While the group's approach has always been (and remains) rock to the core, the outside manifestation of those intentions have gradually moved further and further away from the rock framework. Shockingly, on this release, Haino takes the process to its natural conclusion and has decided to eschew the guitar entirely. In its place, nothing but the eerily empty hiss of overdriven amplification. Here Haino sings, plays drums, and conjures with spectres. Consequently, the sound palette is starker, and Haino's intentions plainer than they have ever been before. The no overdubs policy remains, though both Haino and bassist Ozawa work with realtime loops. The unique dynamic hallmarks of the group are preserved, the focus on individual sounds and their interaction underlined. Attack, duration, beginnings and endings all merge into one heartrending, emotionally eternal present. This is a hugely important, hauntingly insistent, spectral blast of a record. Quite simply and beyond any doubts, one of the releases of the year." -- Alan Cummings.

Artist:	FUSHITSUSHA
Title:	1978: Eien no ho ga saki ni te o dashita no sa
Label:	PSF (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PSF 8016CD

"From 1978, the earliest group recordings by Fushitsusha yet to be released. A vital document for understanding the Japanese underground and the truest, most exciting rock group of the contemporary era. Now here's something unexpected and utterly fascinating. The earliest years of Fushitsusha have long been shrouded in mystery, palely illumined by only the dimmest of rumours and half-facts. As a live entity the group seems to have begun sometime in 1978 (also the year that Friction, Japan's first punk group formed), initially in a couple of strange duo line-ups, one of which included Tamio Shiraishi on synth. But soon after that it took on the familiar rock trio form, with Jun Hamano (of the legendary acid-splatter group Gaseneta) on bass, and a shady character called Takashima on drums. This version of the group lasted for about a year before falling apart, and documentation was pretty much non-existent. Until now. On the usual all-black textured paper gatefold, the only distinguishing mark is a small silver '1978'. Unchanging timelessness is one of Fushitsusha's most salient characteristics, and this release reveals that the group's radical dissection of rock rhythm, fracturing of attack and summoning of vibration was born entirely fully-formed. That the group has retained an identical level of intensity, experimentation and commitment for twenty-five years is a truly a testament to something. Either way, this is one more piece of a puzzle too vast to be grasped in its entirety by anyone other than Haino. And further proof, as if any was needed, that Fushitsusha are the most exciting rock group of the contemporary era. For those that pay attention to such things, the title means something approximately like 'It was eternity that reached out its hand first'?"

Artist:	FUSHITSUSHA
Title:	1991.9.26 19:15-20:08
Label:	PSF (JAPAN)
Format:	DVD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	PSFDV 002

NTSC region free DVD. "26th September 1991 saw a titanic showdown at the Shibuya La Mama club in Tokyo. Keiji Haino's tumultuous Fushitsusha brought their epochal de/re-construction of rock to ringside to tussle it out with John Zorn's international hardcore skronk trio Pain Killer. The night was being documented for a Pain Killer live album (released as Rituals), which meant that Fushitsusha got to benefit from an unusually high-quality recording. Previously available as a PSF video, but out of print for the last few years on that unwieldy medium, this is the document of Fushitsusha's jaw-dropping set that night -- and still the only official Fushitsusha visuals available. A digest-sized version of everything that is great about the group, somehow squeezing the Grand Canyon breadth and depth of Haino's ambition into a far shorter set than they usually play. Raining down like manna from heaven for the converted, 53 minutes worth of prime Fushitsusha live, loud and leveling. What more do you need to know?" -- Alan Cummings

Artist:	FUSHITSUSHA
Title:	Withdrawe, this sable Disclosure ere devot'd
Label:	VICTO (CANADA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	VICTO 060CD

The trio of Keiji Haino (guitar, voice), Yasushi Ozawa (bass) & Ikuro Takahashi (drums), recorded live at Victoriavilla 5/16/97. "With reference to the title for the Fushitsusha album, Keiji Haino takes a lot of care and time over the selection of titles for his albums. He specifically asked that this title be translated into a type of English that would be reminiscent of medieval language. As going back that far would render the title mostly incomprehensible to the majority of listeners, we eventually came to the compromise of using Elizabethan-style (Skakespearean, etc.) grammar, spelling and diction. Within those parameters, I believe that the title makes grammatical sense and communicates both the feel and meaning of what Keiji wants to say." --Alan Cummings (translator).

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